I must confess, things turned mundane as soon as I settled into a job and now it has been around a year since have been working in this company (I don’t find it good to post facebook statuses about it). Past year has been thick and thin, more thin than thick actually but music and books are the only loyal friends I’ve had during these times.

“Without music, life would be a mistake” ~ Nietzsche

So, I’ve been exploring a great deal of western music during the last one year, most of which is from 60’s and 70’s. It brings with it the forgetfulness of the world and sorrows because the only thing music can bring about is happiness. These days, anything musical instantly grabs my attention. I should mention the flutists (flute players) at one of the local railway stations here which cause a massive obstruction everyday because they play it so well that I am forced to sit there for 10-15 minutes to just listen to them, and I don’t believe that anyone would ever mind arriving a little late in the office if he gets to hear that kind of music everyday. So beautiful and pleasing to the ears it is that it easily makes you forget the massive crowd surrounding the railway station and you get the feeling that no one on this planet exists between that flutist and yourself.

Besides, I think most of the modern music these days is absolute trash, of course there are a few exceptions but still my opinion applies to the majority. I saw this joke about this modern fascination “Pitbull”, the joke says that the only thing good about his music is that he mentions his name at the start of every song so that people can turn off the radio, the guy who made this joke deserves a medal. I’ve always believed in seeing things in black and white i.e. right and wrong and I feel that it is very important for people to hear truthful music rather than listening to the kind of music in which they bang all the utensils in the kitchen together, lyrics which depict realities of life, which one can easily relate to himself. One of Bob Dylan’s song “Mr. Tambourine Man” has the end lyrics as –

“Then take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.”

This creates a beautiful image in the head every time you listen to it and I suggest that one should listen to this song by concentrating entirely on the lyrics. It is definitely one of the greatest songs ever written.

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Simon and Garfunkel, The Who, Radiohead, Coldplay, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Mumford and Sons are some of the music artists that I’m into and I love their songs.

I’m sure most of you might not have heard about “Sixto Rodriguez” before the documentary “Searching for sugar man” (Neither did I). It was rather unbelievable that an individual with that amount of talent was sidelined for so many years. Due to this growing fascination towards music I’m even thinking buying an iPod touch soon.

So, I just wanna leave you guys with a few songs that I keep humming throughout the day, I hope you guys keenly follow my suggestions.

Finished reading Harper Lee’s only novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” a couple of months back, though I had already seen the film but as a wise man once said “Never judge a book by it’s movie” and perhaps that quote works both ways. I must say I am totally astonished by the brilliance with which the author has penned down and integrated different themes of prejudice, innocence and human dignity. It makes you explore the dark side of living in within the social standards, the standards which unknowingly take the form of prejudice in human behaviour.
Also, one cannot help but respect Atticus Finch’s remarkable belief in righteousness, even though it is against the society. Mr. Finch is a character to look up to.

Although, I don’t wanna reveal the plot if you haven’t read the novel yet but there is one particular scene that I loved the most and it was extremely well-written. The scene is when Bob Ewell, the culprit’s father spits on Atticus Finch’s face in the street, but Finch remains unruffled and doesn’t do anything. Bob Ewell than says – “To proud to fight you nigger lover”, and Mr.Finch replies – “No..Too Old”.

So, if you haven’t read the novel yet do not waste your time reading this post and start reading it soon. Good Bye for now.

So what happened was that one morning i went to my college just to complete some degree formalities and I thought it would be a wise idea to keep a movie on download while I was out to college. So put the movie “Rear Window” which is a classic on download. It usually takes me 6 hours on average to download a movie because internet speeds in India suck big time. So I left for college thinking that I will be able to watch the movie in the evening.
It took me a little longer to return from my college and when i returned back and checked out my computer, the CPU smelled like something was burning inside it. The modem was blown up and so was CPU and I wasn’t able to turn both of them ON. It happened because I don’t use UPS with my PC and during monsoon there is a lot of voltage fluctuation in my city. So I called my vendor and he told me that he would fix the CPU and return it next day in the evening.
The time away from internet was really full of boredom as I have nothing to do these days because I am waiting for my joining date of my job. So the next day in the evening my CPU returned. But that was not the end of the story, as soon as I turned on my CPU after 2 mins my Monitor started smelling like something was burning within it and turned off. So I gave the monitor to my vendor again and it took him 3 days to fix it and I also brought a UPS to avoid such things in future.
But that is not the end of the story, as soon as I started my PC hoping that it would work fine now, the power went off and didn’t return until I was asleep.

Further, the next morning when I started my computer the internet connection went down. It was as if some devil is after me and willing to make me suffer :D. Finally everything was fine in the evening and it was an end of  a stressful week which didn’t involve any work.

*PEACE*

So yeah this post is titled “A cricketing moment to remember” and this is about a cricketing incident in Indian cricket which just came into my mind from nowhere today morning. Of course there have been numerous incidents in cricket but this one was a special one for me.

The time goes back to the India-Australia Test Series in 2007 which I think is one of the most controversial test series involving India after that racist war between Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds, plus the controversial umpiring decisions in the Sydney test match which India lost. So, going into the 3rd test match in Perth, India were 2-0 down in the series.

Now, India won the toss and chose to bat first in the Perth Test and were bowled out for 330 but the bowlers bounced back well and bowled out Australia for 212. Of course people might say how well VVS Laxman and Irfan Pathan (Man of the Match) played in that game and without a doubt they did play well, but what was more noteworthy was R.P. Singh’s contribution as a tail-ender in the second innings.

India were struggling in the second innings at 235-8, while laxman was still at the crease when R.P. Singh walked into the middle and I still Harsha Bhogle saying that “The only way R.P. Singh knows to bat was one foot down the leg side and a swing of the bat towards mid-wicket” and that’s true without a doubt because that’s the tailender way of batting. But he did show outstanding courage in that innings by forming a crucial 50 run partnership which led India to a reasonable total. He made only 30 runs of 73 balls but important thing was he helped VVS Laxman who always bats well against Australia and created a vital partnership which in the end helped India to win the match.

Now, some people might say that “What was the big deal ?? Any tailender could have done that ??” , but the incident that happened after R.P. Singh got out was worth watching. Each and every person in the Indian dressing room, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and even legend Sachin Tendulkar stood up, clapped and acknowledged what he had done. I can still remember Sunil Gavaskar’s word when he was returning to the dressing room, he said “What a moment !! Even the senior most and the oldest member of the Indian Team, Sachin Tendulkar is appreciating what this man R.P. Singh has done for the team” !!

Moments like these define Indian Cricket !!